Program guide displaying apparatus and method

• US 20010042247A1
• Filed: 12/08/2000
• Published: 11/15/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Tatsu Inoue
• Original Assignee: Tatsu Inoue
• Inventors: Inoue, Tatsu
• Application Number:
  US09/731,844
• Publication Number:
  US 20010042247A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

A program guide displaying apparatus (1) is provided with: a program information obtaining device (3 to 7) for obtaining program information including information indicative of a program name, a genre name, a start time, a length of a program or an end time, a broadcasting channel and a broadcasting date of respective one of a plurality of programs; and a program information displaying device (8, 9, 200) for displaying the program information as for the programs in a first display mode or a second display mode which are exchangeable to each other, wherein said program information displaying device displays the program information in such a manner that the programs are distinguishable from each other by colors set for respective genres of the programs for a wide time range on a time axis and a wide channel range on a channel axis in the first display mode and that the programs are distinguishable from each other by at least program names of the programs for a narrow time range on the time axis and a narrow channel range on the channel axis in the second display mode. The apparatus is also provided with: a range displaying device (9, 17, 200) for displaying a program table range to be displayed in the second display mode in such a manner that the program table range is distinguishable on a program table displayed in the first display mode; and a moving device (9, 12, 13, 17) for moving the program table range on the program table.

Claims

1. A program guide displaying apparatus comprising:

a program information obtaining device for obtaining program information including information indicative of a program name, a genre name, a start time, a length of a program or an end time, a broadcasting channel and a broadcasting date of respective one of a plurality of programs;

a program information displaying device for displaying the program information as for the programs in a first display mode or a second display mode which are exchangeable to each other, wherein said program information displaying device displays the program information in such a manner that the programs are distinguishable from each other by colors set for respective genres of the programs for a first time range on a time axis and a first channel range on a channel axis in the first display mode and that the programs are distinguishable from each other by at least program names of the programs for a second time range, which is narrower than the first time range, on the time axis and a second channel range, which is narrower than the first channel range, on the channel axis in the second display mode;

a range displaying device for displaying a program table range to be displayed in the second display mode in such a manner that the program table range is distinguishable on a program table displayed in the first display mode;

a movement specifying device for receiving an instruction to move the program table range; and

a moving device for moving the program table range on the program table displayed in the first display mode, in response to the instruction received by said movement specifying device, wherein said moving device moves the program table range for a distance equivalent to a predetermined number of unit-time-periods in a time axis direction and a predetermined number of channels in a channel axis direction.

2. A program guide displaying apparatus comprising:

a program information obtaining device for obtaining program information including information indicative of a program name, a genre name, a start time, a length of a program or an end time, a broadcasting channel and a broadcasting date of respective one of a plurality of programs; and

a displaying device for displaying the program information as for the programs as a program table,

said program table comprising (i) a plurality of program cells which are displayed in such a manner that the programs are distinguishable from each other by colors set for respective genres of the programs for a first time range on a time axis and a first channel range on a channel axis, (ii) a selected cell display, which is displayed within the program table and indicates a program cell which is currently selected, and (iii) a popup display, which is displayed at a vicinity of the selected cell display on the program table and indicates information related to the program corresponding to the program cell which is currently selected, wherein the popup display is displayed at a position determined in correspondence with a position of the program cell, which is currently selected, in the program table.

3. A program guide displaying method comprising:

a program information obtaining process of obtaining program information including information indicative of a program name, a genre name, a start time, a length of a program or an end time, a broadcasting channel and a broadcasting date of respective one of a plurality of programs;

a program information displaying process of displaying the program information as for the programs in a first display mode or a second display mode which are exchangeable to each other, wherein said program information displaying process displays the program information in such a manner that the programs are distinguishable from each other by colors set for respective genres of the programs for a first time range on a time axis and a first channel range on a channel axis in the first display mode and that the programs are distinguishable from each other by at least program names of the programs for a second time range, which is narrower than the first time range, on the time axis and a second channel range, which is narrower than the first channel range, on the channel axis in the second display mode;

a range displaying process of displaying a program table range to be displayed in the second display mode in such a manner that the program table range is distinguishable on a program table displayed in the first display mode;

a movement specifying process of receiving an instruction to move the program table range; and

a moving process of moving the program table range on the program table displayed in the first display mode, in response to the instruction received by said movement specifying process, wherein said moving process moves the program table range for a distance equivalent to a predetermined number of unit-time-periods in a time axis direction and a predetermined number of channels in a channel axis direction.

4. A program guide displaying method comprising:

a program information obtaining process of obtaining program information including information indicative of a program name, a genre name, a start time, a length of a program or an end time, a broadcasting channel and a broadcasting date of respective one of a plurality of programs; and

a displaying process of displaying the program information as for the programs as a program table,

said program table comprising (i) a plurality of program cells which are displayed in such a manner that the programs are distinguishable from each other by colors set for respective genres of the programs for a first time range on a time axis and a first channel range on a channel axis, (ii) a selected cell display, which is displayed within the program table and indicates a program cell which is currently selected, and (iii) a popup display, which is displayed at a vicinity of the selected cell display on the program table and indicates information related to the program corresponding to the program cell which is currently selected, wherein the popup display is displayed at a position determined in correspondence with a position of the program cell, which is currently selected, in the program table.